re: #77 Amory Blaine

I got a #4 cylinder misfire on the mini van. So I take off the plastic engine cover and there was a nest on top of the engine! Some rodent chewed up the sound deadening foam on the underside of the engine cover and also through my #4 fuel injector wires. Wire burned up about 3 inches. Lucky the wiring was under some kind of wire wrap, or the nest could have started the car on fire. I have to wait til Monday for the part and hope that was all he chewed through. I didn’t notice any other damage and blew all the leaves and stuff out.

Yeah, same thing happened to me a couple of years ago: we had to clear garage space for some house repairs, and parked the cars outside in the summer. When I went to start the Mini Cooper one day it was dead: when the tow guy came to give it a jump, we found that mice had gotten in and eaten the fuel lines - apparently a delicacy for the little suckers, who knew?

Anyway, I did learn a good trick for making a homemade rodent- repellent: useful if you have to store a car somewhere where the bastards might get at it. In a small spray bottle, mix a couple of teaspoons of essential peppermint oil with a pint of water and a couple of drops of liquid soap to emulsify it. Spray if all under the car, up in the wheel wells, and all around the engine. It’s pretty pungent, but will fade after a week or so, and does a good job of keeping critters at bay.